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doug-hajek

Douglas Hajek

President and Executive Chairman

Douglas Hajek is co-founder of Prague City University and has led the institution since it began in 2004. As President he chairs the University Board and is responsible for developing the long-term mission and strategy of the university, while supervising and advising the leadership team through close cooperation with the Executive Director, the Rector and the Academic Council Executive.

Originally from Edmonton in Canada, Douglas Hajek completed secondary school in Italy and, after working in Canada and Japan, settled in Prague in 1990. He holds an MBA in Higher Education Management from UCL Institute of Education, University of London (United Kingdom), and his undergraduate degree is a Joint Honours BA in History and Philosophy from McGill University in Montreal (Canada). Douglas is also an alumnus of the United World College of the Adriatic in Duino (Italy), where he completed his International Baccalaureate.

"As we approach our 20th anniversary I believe we have set the foundations of a institution that will be recognisable to the children of our grandchildren. We have created a university that provides an excellent education and learning experience for our students, reflects a rewarding work environment for our academic and administrative staff, and has demonstrated that the PCU community makes a meaningful contribution to the world around us."

"I am committed to the idea that higher education should be a dialogue and conversation, a journey of discovery undertaken by lecturers and students together. The opportunity to experience university should be available throughout one's life course, and at its best, higher education can be a wonderful and transformative experience."

Prague City University was founded with the goal of creating an institution that promotes and enables these ideals, and Doug was responsible for its initial vision to develop a learning environment for three separate but related disciplines: business, art & design and computing, with a commitment to embedding an interdisciplinary approach to teaching and learning across the institution. He led the project to attain university status in the Czech Republic and oversaw the transformation of Prague College to Prague City University and the introduction of our fourth School of Education.

As President of Prague City University, Doug's responsibilities include:

  • ensuring PCU's national and international academic, industry and community engagement
  • developing the institution as a collegially-managed university
  • encouraging academic ambition throughout the organisation
  • maintaining financial and institutional sustainability 

As Chairman of the University Board, Doug holds the day-to-day responsibilities for ensuring and developing the Board's advisory, supervisory and support roles throughout the organisation and coordinating with the leadership team.

Douglas has been working in international education for over 30 years, first teaching in Japan and then Prague. He began managing education in 1991, when he founded a corporate training organization that provided up to one thousand professional education programmes annually for more than twelve years. At Prague City University, Douglas has taught business management, administration and information systems. 

Other professional activities during his career include magazine and book publishing, design and art catalogue publishing, as well as cultural management. In this regard, he was co-founder and publisher of Yazzyk Magazine, the first literary and art magazine published in English in Prague after 1989 (link), as well as producer for the artist at the Czech Pavilion of the 48th Venice Biennale in 1999 and at dozens of exhibitions around the world.

Douglas is interested in all aspects of transnational education, and especially new developments in national and international systems of quality assurance and enhancement. Previous presentations and reports include:

  • "Issues in Quality Assurance in Transnational Education: Examples from the Czech Republic", Konference Hodnoceni kvality vysokych skol, 12. seminar: Cesty k diverzifikaci vysokeho skolstvi, Masaryk University, Univerzitni centrum Telc, Czech Republic, 2011 
  • "Transnational Higher Education in the Czech Republic: Threat or Opportunity?", Report for the Director of the Centre for Higher Education Studies - Centrum pro studium vysokeho skolstvi v.v.i., Prague, Czech Republic, 2010 
  • "Central European Higher Education: the context and idea of community colleges in Europe", Context of Culture - Central Europe in Transition, Maricopa Center for Learning and Instruction, Maricopa Community Colleges, Phoenix, Arizona, USA, 2010 (link)

Education

  • MBA, UCL Institute of Education, University of London
  • BA (Joint Honours), McGill University, Montreal
  • International Baccalaureate, UWC Adriatic, Italy